A novel feature-based and application-oriented approach to Marine Sub-bottom Acoustic spatial data fusion

Aiming at the deficiencies in the field of Marine Sub-bottom Acoustic Exploration (MSAE), such as inefficiency in data management and limitation in data representation, full analyses are made on the technology and the exploring data of MSAE. A theme-based data integration model is proposed for MSAE data integration based on the themes of geomorphology, topography, and stratigraphy. The efficiencies of MSAE data management and use are consequently improved. Then a feature-based and application-oriented data fusion model is proposed for the full use and visual representation of the MSAE data. Evaluation of the two proposed models and their results are then made. With the successful application of the marine pipe route inspection (MPRI) in Hangzhou Bay, a GIS prototype system is constructed. All these studies show that the proposed models can improve the efficiencies of data management and use, meet the data needs of higher level applications, and implement the consistent visual data representation, in the field of MSAE. It can provide some references to the related applications in the field.